Section
SANDY, O R EG O N
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 24
The S^ndy Post
1981
Area News
People
Home & Garden
Features
Man found guilty in ‘Santa Claus’ trial
Pictured at left are Ron Zeegers and Anna
Carpenter, defense attorneys, and Steve
Hodgson, defendant. At right: Dorothy Byrd,
IRS representative. Top center: Trudy Brown
swears in surprise witness Santa Claus. Center
right: Jon Campbell, customs official, and to
the right of that, Jenny Trukositz and Chris Bot-
cheos. prosecuting attorneys, and in the
background, Darcy Bagley. Bottom Center:
Tl e jury, from left to right, is Heather Horst,
’ at Ixwderback, Wendy Goodloe, Traci Ander
son and Cassandra Olson. On the bottom, from
left to right, is Kraig Gifford, bystander, Darcy
Bagley, PAA representative, Patsy Wesselink,
veterinarian, and Patty Gray, homeowner.
Mistaken identity defense fails
Kris Kringle was found guilty of
trespassing and other charges last
week in Clackamas County district
court after an emotional final
argument by Chris Botcheos, pro
secuting atto. ney
K ringle ( andy Union High
School student Steve Hodgson) was
charged with trespassing, cruelty
to animals, violation of interstate
commerce laws, failure to report
with the Internal Revenue Service
as a non profit organization and
disturbing the peace.
Some of the charges might have
been dropped, but when Santa
Claus himself showed up, and
didn’t identify Kringle as a helper,
it hurt the defendant's case.
Botcheos tried to prove that San
ta Claus was guilty of cruelty to
animals by entering as evidence
two books showing Santa Claus
cracking a whip over his reindeers’
heads
That evidence was disputed
Veterinarian Patsy Wesselink
said, “ There’s no evidence of scars
on the reindeer from being hit by a
whip, and it looks as though they’re
well fed ”
An elf, Dorothy Byrd, offered
te s tim o n y c o n tr a r y lo the
discrimination charge, saying that
the elves are happy at the North
Pole
On the disturbing the peace
charge Ron Zeegers, defense at
torney, also brought out that Kraig
Gifford, bystander, was too far
away to make a positive identifica
tion of the man yelling, “ A M erry
Christmas to all and to all a good
night."
Other testimony was hard to
dispute. Patty Gray, homeowner,
caught Kringle in the act, witness
ing him entering the house through
the chimney He got soot on the
carpet and ate some cookies, she
said.
Under cross-examination she ad
mitted, however, that she didn’t
see Kringle take the cookies
An Internal Revenue Service
representative (Byrd again) said
that Claus had filled out no forms
with them, and a representative of
the Federal Aviation Adm inistra
tion, Darcy Bagley, said that Claus
also waf not registered with them.
Jon Campbell customs official,
said that no forms were filed with
th e m ,
but
d u rin g
c ro ss-
examination admitted that an er
ror could have been made.
After a five minute recess the
defense called a surprise witness,
Santa Claus, and tried to claim
mistaken identity.
Botcheos wouldn’t hear of it. “ He
is the c rim in a l," Botcheos said,
pointing to Kringle.
"H e is not,” he said, pointing to
Santa Claus
Pointing to Kringle again, he
said, “ That man right there was
arrested, saying that he was Santa
Claus."
The five-person ju ry was con
vinced, and found Kris Kringle
guilty.
Judge Bryan Noe asked the
defense if they had any final
statements.
Anna Carpenter, defense at
torney, said, “ Naw, what the
heck?”
With that, Noe sentenced Kringle
to 400 years in ja il, with parole
available every Dec. 24, and on
Jan. 1, for New Year’s Day football
games
(The tria l was a project of Len
Eaton’s street law class.)
Story and photos by Scott Newton
t